School ethics committees

• Contacts and members

  Each SEC must have a minimum of four members (at least two of whom should be permanent staff members). This is to ensure that there are always three SEC members involved in the review of an application, even if one member is excluded by having a conflict of interest.

  The minimum number of members required to be present at a SEC meeting or to review an application is three (at least two of whom should be permanent staff).

  School ethics committee	Members
  Art History Contact:  lcw10@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Lynn Ayton)	Dr Gönül Bozoglu (convenor) Lynn Ayton (administrator) Dr Bronwen Gulkis Dr Nicôle Meehan
  Biology Contact Lynn Christie: bioethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Luke Rendell (convenor - human ethics) Professor Sonja Vernes (convenor - animal ethics) Dr Lynn Christie (administrator) Dr Neil Hazon Dr Cornelia Oedekoven (CREEM) Dr Enrico Pirotta (CREEM) Charles Paxton (CREEM) Prof Graeme Ruxton
  Business School Contact: bschoolethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Boyka Bratanova (convenor) Sumit Bains (administrator) Dr Cinla Akinci Dr Joao Cunha Dr Hannah Dean Dr Cailean Gallagher (semester 1) Dr Peter Macmillan Dr Ralitza Nikolaeva Dr Frank Siedlok Dr Brendan Whitty (semester 1) Dr Song Zhang
  Chemistry Contact:  chem-ethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Danica G Pinto (convenor) Dr Jason McNulty (administrator) Dr Neil Keddie Dr John B O Mitchell
  Classics Contact:  classicshos@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor Myles Lavan  (convenor: semester 1) Dr Talitha Kearey (convenor: semester 2) Sam Dixon (administrator)
  Computer Science Contact: ethics-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Olexandr Konovalov (convenor) Hazel Wallace (administrator) Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati Dr Loraine Clarke Dr Nnamdi Ekwe-Ekwe Dr Lei Fang Dr Gregor Haywood Dr Jason Jacques Prof Graham Kirby Dr David Morrison
  Divinity Contact: divinitypg@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Matthew Sharp (convenor) Kate Dove (administrator) Professor Mario Aguilar Rev Katrin Bosse Dr John Perry
  English Contact:  english@st-andrews.ac.uk (Wendy Boyter) English SEC website	Professor Margaret Connolly (convenor) Wendy Boyter (administrator) Dr Lorna Burns (semester 1) Prof David Herd Dr Sara Lodge (semester 2) Prof Gill Plain Dr Raphaela Rohrhofer Professor Emma Sutton (semester 1) Dr Kiron Ward
  Geography and Sustainable Development Contact:  gsdethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr David McCollum (convenor) Natalie Connell (administrator) Dr Matthew Sothern (stand-in convenor) Dr Jo Hale Dr Katy Keenan Dr Mike Kesby Dr Charlotte Lee Dr Ife Okafor-Yarwood Dr Vanessa Schofield Dr Antonis Vradis
  Graduate School Contact: Lisa Neilson gradschool@st-andrews.ac.uk
  History Contact:  lh@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Lorna Harris)	Dr Bill Jenkins (convenor) Lorna Harris (administrator) Dr Guilherme Fians  Prof James Palmer Dr Malcolm Petrie Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith Dr Akhila Yechury
  International Education Institute Contact:  ie-sec@st-andrews.ac.uk  SEC website: Moodle Page	Blair Matthews (convenor) Julie Smith (administrator) Steven Bartholomew (lay member) Mary Carr Mark Carver Kirsty Duff Alan Duncan John Hughes Eoin Jordan Alison Malcolm-Smith Kirsty McCall Stefan O'Grady Aaron Rotsinger Amritesh Singh Kerry Tavakoli Lesley Thirkell Lynn Wilson Sin Wang Chong
  International Relations Contact: irethics@st-andrews.ac.uk Ethics - School of International Relations - University of St Andrews (st-andrews.ac.uk)	Dr Kieran McConaghy (convenor) Joyce Walsh (administrator) Dr John Anderson Dr Filippo Costa Buranelli Dr Matteo Fumagalli Dr David Miles Prof Ali Watson
  Mathematics and Statistics	Professor Andy Lynch (convenor) Dr Stephen Brooks Dr Alison Johnson Professor Clare Parnell Dr Lindesay Scott-Hayward Dr Antonia Wilmot-Smith
  Medicine Contact: medethic@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor David Harrison (convenor) Sophie McMillan (administrator) Dr Sarah Bowers Dr Jo Cecil Katrin Metsis Dr Paul Reynolds Dr Derek Sloan
  Modern Languages Contact:  langsethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Emily Finer (convenor) David Allan (administrator) Dr Kirill Dmitriev Prof Ziad Elmarsafy Dr Ricardo Fernandez Romero Dr Javier Letran
  Philosophy, Social Anthropology and Film Studies Contact:  researchpafs@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Ana Gutierrez Garza (convenor) Sandra Tulloch (administrator) Dr Mattia Fumanti Prof Christos Lynteris Dr Joseph Millum
  Physics and Astronomy Contact:  da16@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Dimali Vinthage)	Professor J Carlos Penedo-Esteiro (convenor) Dr Dimali Vithanage (administrator) Dr Andrew Bunting Dr Cameron Rae Dr Juan Varela
  Psychology and Neuroscience (human and animal) Contact: psyethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr David Tait (convenor, Human & Animal ethics) Dr Helen Sunderland (administrator) Dr Ilary Allodi Dr Justin Ales Dr Juan-Carlos Gomez Professor Julie Harris (semester 1) Dr Paula Miles Dr Samuel Pehrson Dr Anna Stefaniak Mr Gary Steven Dr Nicole Tausch Dr Maarten Zwart (semester 2)

   

• Meetings

  SEC meetings occur regularly. For information on dates and deadlines of SEC meetings, email your SEC contact or refer to your SEC's webpage (see contacts section above).

  Ethical application forms must be submitted to the relevant School ethics committee (see contacts section above). After submission your application will be reviewed and discussed at the next SEC meeting, and the SEC will respond, providing constructive criticism and advice. The details of the review process are provided on the application page.

  If your school does not have a SEC, email the UTREC office at utrecmail@st-andrews.ac.uk for guidance.

• SEC convenor remit and role

  UTREC expects the following tasks to be undertaken by a SEC convenor, who has to be a trained member of the SEC:

  • For SEC meetings: drafting the agenda, chairing the meeting (ensuring that those with conflicts of interest are excluded from reviewing relevant applications) and finalising the minutes
  • Acting on the SEC’s behalf between meetings when urgent matters arise and when decisions are required
  • Ensuring that the SEC is quorate (i.e. contains a minimum of four trained members), identifying and recruiting new SEC members when required
  • Ensuring that SEC members and administrators obtain appropriate training
  • Raising awareness of importance of ethical issues within their School and the relation of ethical approval to research integrity, liaising with the Director of Research as appropriate
  • Referring applicants who have repeatedly incurred avoidable burden on SEC members' time to applicant training, liaising with the Director of Research and Head of School as appropriate
  • Organising a handover with the new SEC Convenor and UTREC office when demitting
  • Ensuring the UTREC office are kept up to date with changes in the SEC membership
  • Responding to, or circulating onward, communications from the UTREC office.

• Monitoring by UTREC

  SECs have their own procedures in place to ensure continuity in performing ethical review, but are accountable to, and monitored by, UTREC, in the following ways:

  • All SEC members must be trained every three years by the UTREC office.
  • SECs must upload all applications they approve into a central database run by the UTREC office.
  • Summaries of all applications approved by SECs, taken from the central database, are scrutinised by UTREC at its meetings.
  • UTREC may request to review the full documentation for any approved application, in the interest of either sharing best practice or investigating a concern, and may invite the researcher(s) or relevant SEC Convenor to speak to the application.
  • Members of UTREC or the UTREC office may attend SEC meetings.

• Conflicts of interest

  Ethical review must be free from bias and undue influence.
  
  This requires that researchers or supervisors are not involved in the review of proposals for which they have a conflict of interest; including the researchers, participants, or organisations related to the proposal. SEC members are responsible for actively identifying and declaring any such conflicts, and ensuring they are not involved in the review of any such proposals.